The boys are back in town

ok, so what happened there then? Well, where do I start. Life kinda got in the way of this blogging stuff .. in a big way. In a nutshell I got pregnant again and our beautiful second son Caleb was born in August 2010 ...



He is no longer a baby.

Even less of a baby is his big brother. Quite the grown up our little lad starts school in a few short months time. We have a pair of proper cheeky monkeys on our hands ...



We moved again (twice!) relocating to York and buying our forever (for a while anyhow) family home ...



I have a serious lack of pictures of the place but you get the idea. 1950s semi with lots of bay windows.

House buying is all about compromise and we went for the dump of a house needing tlc but in the nice area. Last summer we spent six long weeks making it habitable throwing every ounce of energy and every penny of our savings we had left at it along the way. We got there ... almost. We still have a disgusting shell of a kitchen and a distinct lack of curtainage - for the latter I blame my obsessive need to have the right curtains for all those big bay windows, right curtains which cost such a lot of money even if you make them yourself :)



See those curtains there - yep those are linings held up by safety pins. I have no shame.

Finally, I went back to work full time when we moved. Himself looks after the tiddlers and I picked up a hefty job for my sins along with the not insignificant responsibility of being our single wage earner with a big fat mortgage ...



ok, so I don't manage this level of togetherness or glamour on any level but you get the idea. I hold the whole working mum thing together, just, for most of the time. I'll no doubt prattle on more about all that in due course.

So excuses made, re-introductions complete and we are back in business here at the patch.
Toodle pip
J
x

Smarty pants

A couple of weeks back we attended the wedding of one of my cousins up in North Yorkshire. A pretty frock, make up and blow dried hair for me, best bib and tucker for the boys. Didn't we look smart?



Especially the little fella in his smart shirt ... it was even ironed for the occasion by his Nana! (I'm not known for ironing clothes!)



It was fun watching the deteroration of tidieness throughout the day, two or three hours in and he was a very different child having totally smeared himself in chocolate truffles :) Those table favours came into good use trying to keep him quiet through the speeches!!!

The venue, Goldsborough Hall, was super posh. A gorgeous house with awesome chandeliers and gardens that looked unreal because they were that perfect.. you know the kind where there is literally not one weed to be seen as far as the eye can see, the gravel has been raked into patterns and the grass looks to have been cut with nail scissors ... by hand! The day generated lots of post match analysis on the drive home the next day - you know disecting various relatives and their weirdness alongside discussions about how we want our own wedding to be. We just can't get that one sorted in our heads at the moment!

Overall we had a very nice time, it was lovely to see everyone all dressed up and the weather was perfect so we could spend most of the afternoon outdoors. Keeping a one year old entertained and well behaved throughout was a challenge - quite long stretches of weddings are either really boring (official photos anyone? yawn) or require small people to keep uber quiet. Keeping the other half entertained on the other hand was quite easy ... he rather took advantage of the free champagne and was more than a bit merry by about 4pm! Boy-oh-boy did he suffer the next morning. Don't think he realised he can no longer hack the pace like he could in his youth :)
Toodle pip
J
x

It has been a while...

Ooops where did that month go? Well, mostly it was spent moving house, unpacking boxes and sitting for hours on the phone trying to get the darned broadband sorted out. Don't get me started on BT and their inability to provide even basic levels of customer service. But excuses, excuses I should have got round to this before now. Bad blogger!

So, yep the big news is that the peapods have a new 'temporary' patch... welcome to number 22!



We just about survived the move - I would not recommend moving house with a one year old ... ever! But the bad backs and aching arms have healed, I've stopped dreaming about stacks of boxes and we have just about got the place habitable. It is very odd being back in rented digs and it has taken some time to feel settled again, partly because we are very much hoping that this will be a fairly short term home for us.

We have found upsides to the new digs ...
- Being able to walk to work (loving it!)
- Flick of the switch central heating (no more smoky stoves and shifting coal - hurrah!)
- Big 70s windows as opposed to dark and gloomy cottage windows and three foot thick walls ... no seasonal affective disorder for me this year as I can see sunlight!

And a few downsides...
- No garden to speak of beyond a very yellow poorly looking lawn - no veggie plot, no herb patch, no raspberry patch or apple tree :(
- The terrible bright blue bathroom
- The awful oven (it only has one shelf and takes about 4 hours to cook anything)

I'd take some pictures but they are not very inspiring - think suburban identikit houses. Deperate housewives only for the over 60s - twitching curtains a go go!
Toodle pip
J
x

Pumpkin and (cutie) pie

There have been some autumnal activities going on round here recently. I've knitted a new hat for R's winter wardrobe after realising all the ones we used last year no longer fit...



The pattern is a vintage racing helmet from Sirdar Sublime made using odd balls of stuff from my wool box. I love making hats, one for me is casting on soon!

And in preparation for moving house we've been harvesting what we can of the garden produce, including our pumpkins...



A tad early for Halloween but I've been told they store well so, fingers and toes crossed they should last until the end of October.
Toodle pip
J
x

Sock it to 'em!

Just a quickie to record the fact that I have completed knitting a pair of socks...



The lovely self striping wool was a birthday present this year and I have really enjoyed making these. Portable, pretty and very wearable!



Toodle pip
J
x

Chop, chop

Ever since he was tiny the munchkin has been blessed with a very full head of hair. It was very long, dark and spikey when he arrived and gradually over the months it has evolved into the most lovely blonde sun kissed curls. However, this last few weeks things have got a bit out of hand. The curls were starting to grow sideways, the ends were tickling his ears and dropping in his eyes - basically it had all gone a wee bit bonkers. So Daddy took the little chap to the barbers this morning and ta da, we have a tidy new look ...


The before and after shots!

Sitting still while being snipped was a bit of a challenge but he managed without screaming the place down, thanks largely to the rice cakes and biscuits we plied him with to encourage him to sit still. Doesn't he look all grown up?
Toodle pip
J
x

Party time

Normality returns after a hectic week at the patch. Visitors have departed, the cards have been put into the memory box, the balloons have been deflated, the bunting has been taken down and packed away, and the last crumbs of birthday cake have been snaffled with a cup of tea.

Yep, the birthday party of the year is done and dusted ... and I can finally get round to blogging about some of the things I've been up to over the last few months. I can't quite believe how much planning went into one little tea party!

We had the hand knitted birthday tank top...



The hand knitted present...



Just in case you can't tell these are wonky cast of animal characters from his favourite book 'Monkey Puzzle'. Here they are lined up ready to be popped into their jungle print bag...



We had the crazy idea last minute bunting I sewed from my scrap bag ... not pictured how did I manage to miss snapping that?

And finally the (very badly) hand crafted birthday cake...



This highly engineered structure was meant to represent the little man's favourite toys - stacking cups - but it turned out to be just one giant pile of highly coloured sticky icing :) It slid all over the place during construction yet the icing was like working with glue. Well at least it holds memories!!

As you can tell we gave him a hand made birthday - the best kind if you ask me.
Toodle pip
J
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